Police barred from gun range

Like sportsmen, Clinton police are banned from shooting at the Clinton-owned range off South Meadow Road, according to Building Inspector Richard J. Pauley.

The police recently completed their yearly firearms training for qualification, prompting a new round of noise complaints from neighbors in Clinton and Lancaster, Mr. Pauley said yesterday.

After checking with the town’s lawyer, he said his June cease-and-desist order for shooting at the range, which was upheld in October by the Zoning Board, applies to all shooting, including that by police. The order was issued to the Clinton Fish & Game Protective Association, which holds a lease to the 12-acre parcel on the Clinton-Lancaster-Sterling line.

But Clinton Police Chief Mark R. Laverdure said he was under the impression that police training — which used to be done twice a year — was exempt from the ruling. He said the officers recently used the range, as they have for years in the early fall, for about three weeks.

Chief Laverdure said most of the officers have completed this year’s training, which involves working on defensive tactics, drills, and familiarizing themselves with service revolvers. The Police Department, he said, did not receive a cease-and-desist order.

The chief said officers could use an adjacent area on private property, but he prefers the range, with its 75-foot embankment, because it is safer. The private property, consisting of sand and gravel pits, has an embankment of about 35 feet, he said, and neighbors would be subjected to the same noise.

Chief Laverdure said it would cost the town overtime pay if officers were sent to other ranges, such as in Princeton. They train on the Lancaster property during work hours, he said, because it is so close to town and is owned by the town.

The property, also referred to as the Brandli parcel, was used since the early 1900s by local militia and police, and later by sportsmen for target practice. But in 2000, neighbors, who had formed the South Meadow Pond Wildlife Association, lobbied town meeting voters to lease the land to the wildlife association. That 10-year lease, which prohibited target shooting at the range, was terminated by the selectmen in 2005, allegedly because the association had not paid a small yearly fee to cover Lancaster’s real estate tax on the land.

A new lease was subsequently given in April to the Fish & Game Association, which was the only bidder.

Mr. Pauley contends that it is the responsibility of the Fish and Game Association to keep all shooters off the property, including the police.

William F. Connolly Jr., a spokesman for the association, vehemently disagreed.

“That’s an asinine position to take — that the fish and game club is going to tell the Clinton Police Department that they can’t use property that is owned by the town of Clinton,” Mr. Connolly said.

Furthermore, he pointed out that the association’s lease says Clinton police have access to the property.

“If Richard Pauley believes they (the police) are violating our lease and the Lancaster bylaws, then he’s saying the Clinton Police Department is trespassing. So the burden would be on the Lancaster Police Department,” Mr. Connolly said.

Fish and game members, he said, were notified by the association to stop shooting hours after the order was issued in June. A no-shooting sign has been posted on a gate leading into the range since then.

Mr. Connolly said the association will file an appeal today in Land Court on the Zoning Board decision. It will also apply for a special permit from the Zoning Board to resume shooting. That the police have continued shooting throughout the years-long controversy, he said, only strengthens their lawyer’s contention that the range is “grandfathered” under the zoning bylaw as a recreational use of the property because there has been no stopping of shooting since World War I.

Mr. Pauley said that between 2000 and 2005, many new homes were built in the range area, with residents assuming that shooting at the range was stopped because of the earlier lease.

“Development has really increased down there, and it’s densely populated,” he said. “It’s going to be settled once and for all, and it will be better for everyone involved.”